Magnet control means



May 23, 1961 H. A. HOWELL ET AL MAGNET CONTROL MEANS Filed April 2'7, 1959 IN V EN TORS 1/14 a. fi/mzzz BY. gym/d.

United States Patent ce MAGNET CONTROL IVIEANS Hugh A. Howell, Berwyn, and Jerry L. Jedd, Arlington Heights, Ill., assignors to Oak Mfg. Co., Chicago, 111., a corporation of Illinois Filed Apr. 27, 1959, Ser. No. 809,280

Claims. (Cl. 200-87) This invention relates to a magnetic control means and more particularly to a combined magnetic control and index means for use where a control and load are on opposite sides of a wall or partition.

In the prior copending application of Hugh A. Howell, Serial No. 709,585, filed January 17, 1958, now Patent No. 2,935,583, there is disclosed a magnetic control means for exercising control through a wall or partition which may function as part of a hermetically sealed enclosure. By virtue of the invention disclosed in said application, a manual or otherwise movable control member of ferromagnetic material, and a load including as a part a movable ferromagnetic member, form part of a ferromagnetic circuit on opposite sides of the wall or partition. The control function in the invention disclosed in said application comes about by moving the control member toward or away from the ferromagnetic insert in said partition.

The ferromagnetic circuit includes means for creating a magnetic field. Thus, the manual control, by virtue of its magnetic action is enabled to exercise a remote control on the other side of ferromagnetic insert and cause said ferromagnetic load member to move from one position to another position. By this arrangement, the control force available for action through a wall or partition is increased tremendously over prior constructions using the non-magnetic wall with no ferromagnetic inserts.

We have discovered that the above efiicient remote control by magnetic fields may be efficiently combinedwith an index means. In general, the invention contem plates 2. non-magnetic Wall having spaced ferromagnetic inserts. On one side of the non-magnetic wall there may be disposed one or more armatures movably mounted to respond to a magnetic field in said inserts. Upon the other side of the wall there is provided a combined ferromagnetic manual control and ferromagnetic index means both of which cooperate with the ferromagnetic inserts in said wall. Thus, the ferromagnetic inserts not only function as in the previously mentioned application to increase the efficiency of the control action but also cooperate with the index means so that a powerful and decisive index action is also provided.

In order that the invention may be fully understood, reference will now be made to the drawing wherein a simple embodiment is illustrated. It is understood, however, that modifications are possible without departing from the scope of the invention.

In the drawings,

Figure 1 is a sectional elevation of a magnet control means embodying the present invention.

Figure 2 is a view along line 2-2 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a view along line 33 of Figure 1.

Figure 4 is an exploded view of parts of the index means.

A wall or partition generally of non-magnetic material of any desired shape and thickness is provided. Wall 10 may be of non-magnetic metal or may be of such Patented May 23, 1961 insulating materials as glass, ceramic, plastic, wood or any other material. Wall 10 need not necessarily be rigid and under certain circumstances may have flexibility.

In general, wall 10 will function to divide a region on one side from a region on the other side and may cooperate with other walls or structures so that one or more hermetically sealed regions or places may be provided. Under certain circumstances it may be that wall 10 may be desired simply to separate two regions from each other with no attempt made to provide a hermetic separation between the two regions.

Non-magnetic wall 10 is provided at spaced intervals with ferromagnetic inserts 12 of any shape. Ferromagnetic inserts 12 extend from one side of wall 10 to the other side of wall 10.

Inserts 12 may be of such material as soft iron or any other ferro-magnetic material. As" a rule, the inserts will be firmly maintained in wall 10. The character of retention of the ferromagnetic inserts in the wall will depend upon such factors as the nature of the material of wall 10, difference in pressure on opposite sides of the wall, ambient temperature, the presence or absence of corrosive chemicals, and other factors too numerous to mention depending on the specific application of a device embodying the present invention. Thus, as an example, wall 10 might be of such material as brass, stainless steel (non-magnetic) and have the ferromagnetic inserts brazed or soldered. If Wall 10 is of glass, then the inserts may be sealed into position by any one of a number of means.

Inasmuch as the retention of a ferromagnetic insert in a Wall of non-magnetic material is part of the larger field of technology relating to cementing, sealing, or welding of dissimilar materials and is highly developed, no detailed description is believed to be necessary.

Referring again to inserts 12, it will be observed that insert 12 has face 14 on one side of wall 10 which face is here illustrated as projecting beyond the surface of wall 10. This, however, is not important and may be varied to slit conditions. Face 14 may be fiat or curved, convex or concave, may be flush with the surface of wall 10 or may be recessed into the surface. Face 14 of the ferromagnetic insert is adapted to cooperate with an armature and constitutes the load side of the device. More on this will be pointed out later.

Ferromagnetic insert 12 has face 16 on the other side' of wall 10. Face 16 is concave and provides a depressed region with reference to surface or face 17 of wall 10.

The degree of concavity of ferromagnetic insert 12 is portion 21 of non-magnetic material. Shaft portion 21 is rotatably disposed in ferromagnetic bearing 23 which extends through the wall and is rigidly attached thereto. The actual manner in which bearing 23 is attached to wall 10 will depend upon the nature of the bearing material and the nature of the wall.

Disposed around shaft portion 21 is a manual control assembly including permanent magnet 25 and ferromagnetic pole members 26 and 27 on opposite sides of permanent magnet 25. Permanent magnet 25 may be of any suitable material, such as Alnico V, or may be one of the new ceramic materials having high coercive force. Permanent magnet 25 has its pole faces disposed against pieces 26 and 27.

Pole piece 27 is shaped to provide a conical surface 28 to match the face of bearing member 23. Pole piece 27 presses directly against the opposing face of bearing member 23. Pole piece 26 has the general shape of an arm, the free end of which carries ferromagnetic finger 30. Finger 30 extends toward face 17 of wall 10 and has bore 31 therethrough extending toward face 17 of 3 wall 10. Disposed in bore 31 is ball bearing 3'2'of ferromagnetic material such as steel and ferromagnetic pin 33. Leaf spring 34 carried by shaft portion 21 presses pin 33 to force ball bearing 32 against face 17 of wall The entire manual control assembly, consisting of permanent magnet and pole pieces 26 and 27 with finger 30 and spring 34 is kept in position by cupped washer 35 which is pressed against wall 36 which may form part of the housing carrying wall 10. However, other means for maintaining the shaft in position may be provided. In fact, magnetic attraction due to permanent magnet 25 may be made sufficiently powerful so that the assembly will be kept in position against bearing member 23 in spite of the action of leaf spring 34. However, good mechanical retention of the shaft in the bearing is preferred and other means for accomplishing this may be provided. As an example, an annular groove in the end part of shaft 21, may be provided and a locking pin carried by hearing member 23 may ride this annular groove to provide a rotatable lock for the shaft.

A knob on shaft may be used for turning themagnet control assembly. Index ball 32 will "provide an index action and at the same time will serve to complete a magnetic circuit when finger 30 is in position so that the steel ball engages the ferromagnetic insert 12. Finger 30 has its end shaped to cooperate with insert 12 for completing a magnetic circuit.

Insofar as the load is concerned, spring 40 preferably of ferromagnetic material is here shown as being carried by bearing member 23. Washer 40 has a number of radial arms 41 each of which carries armature 42 disposed to cooperate with a ferromagnetic insert 12. Spring arm 41 normally biases armature 42 away from a ferromagnetic insert. However, when the magnet control arm is in the position illustrated over a magnetic insert, then the particular armature cooperating with such magnetic insert will be attracted toward the magnetic insert. Armature 42 or spring arm 41 may carry movable contact44 Which cooperates with stationary contact 45 of a suitable switch structure.

It is understood that the stationary contact or the movable contact or both may be insulatingly mounted for proper switch action. Inasmuch as it is old to have an armature operate an electric switch, a detailed showing of such a switch is notdeemed to be necessary. It is enough to note that the armature will operate a movable member such as a contact arm or it may even operate a mechanical element such as a movable lever or valve member or the like.

What is claimed is:

1. In a control means, the combination of a rigid par: tition wall of non-magnetic material, said partition wall having ferromagnetic index inserts extending through said wall, one side of said wall comprising a control side and the other side of said wall comprising a load side, movable armature means disposed in proximity to said index inserts on the load side of said partition, said armature 4 means being normally biased to a position spaced from an index insert but being movable toward the insert as a result of lines of magnetic force existing between the insert and an armature, said index inserts being flush with the surface of the partition at the control side and having index indentations therein, ferromagnetic index means movable generally parallel to said wall for cooperation with said index inserts and ferromagnetic circuit means including a source of magnetic flux for creating lines of magnetic force extending through said partition wall whereby when said index means is moved to an index position the magnetic reluctance at said ferromagnetic insert corresponding to said index position is reduced and causes an armature to be attracted and means operated by said armature for utilizing the movement thereof.

2. The combination according to claim 1 wherein said index inserts are disposed in a circular pattern with respect to a portion of the wall, said partition wall having a ferromagnetic member extending through the wall at said partition portion and wherein said ferromagnetic circuit means includes 'a manually movable arm extending from said last-named insert to said ferromagnetic index means. 7

3. In a control means, the combination of a rigid partition wall of nonmagnetic material, said partition wall having ferromagnetic index inserts extending through said wall from a control side of the wall to the load side'of the wall, said index inserts being flush with the partition wall upon the control side and having index indentations, movable armature means disposed in proximity to said index inserts on the load side of said partition wall and being normally biased away from an index insert but being movable thereto in response to magnetic attraction, a manually movable index arm, means for securing said index arm to a portion of said partition wall for movement generally parallel to said wall, ferromagnetic means extending through said partition wall and prow'ding a ferromagnetic link between said index means and the load side of said partition wall, means for securing each armature to said last-named ferromagnetic means whereby said index means will serve to index as well asactuate the operation of an armature and means controlled by the movement of said armature asa load.

4. The construction according to claim 3 wherein said index means includes a spring pressed ferromagnetic ball which is adapted to go into an insert indentation.

5. The construction according to claim 3 wherein said index means is carried by a ferromagnetic arm and wherein said arm is mounted upon a member which includes a permanent magnet as a part thereof.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,410,746 Raettig NoV. 5, 1946 2,543,014 Grace Feb. 27, 1951 2,827,531 OBrien .1 Mar. 18, 1958 

